I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Google (Londres, Inglaterra) in Oct 2014
Interview
I applied online. No reply for 3 weeks. Things started moving after I contacted a sourcer asking what’s the status. It took 2 weeks to arrange the phone interview. Some materials were sent, asking me to prepare and study for the interview. Who has time for that nowadays?
I was interviewed by another product manager. The interview was rushed. It felt like the interviewer was following a script. After a brief introduction, I was bombarded by several abstract open-ended questions. For example:
* What advice would you give to the CEO of Google?
* Pick something that annoys you about a product and describe how would you eliminate that?
* How do you calculate how many calories are in a grocery store?
Having years of experience in product management for another globally known consumer company and having interviewed product managers myself, I tried to demonstrate critical thinking and my approach to problem solving, but apparently it was not enough. Perhaps I hesitated a little bit or didn’t describe my approach well enough. I was not sure what the interviewer was looking for, so it was hard to elaborate. It felt like he got stuck with his questions, he didn’t probe enough.
I guess I’m not the fastest thinker when being asked random abstract questions, but then again, this is not a critical factor in succeeding in almost any role. I don’t think the interviewer asked the right questions to evaluate my skills and knowledge.
Finally, he didn’t leave almost any time for questions to him. I usually allocate at least 1/4 of time for questions when I conduct interviews.
Considering the time and effort to go through the interview process and the randomness of getting through the interview, it’s no wonder they miss out on many talented people, who join startups instead.
PS. They declined my suggestion to use Google Hangout for the interview and opted for a phone call instead. I mean, we are in the 21st century already, why not have a video call using their own product?
I actually interviewed for two different positions at Google with very different experiences. Both times it was a referral from a Googler who I had met socially and got interested by my background and skills.
One set of interviews was for a management position. After the HR screening I went onsite for an afternoon of interviews. 6 total. This was pretty exhausting but I enjoyed very much the discussions, all questions were situational and directly related to the position. Good experience overall.
The second time was for the PM position. (my current role is director of PM). After the HR screening I got an interview with a PM who arrived 20 minutes late and it did not go well from the get go. I was interviewing for a position in the enterprise business part of Google. Enterprise software is my background. The interviewer was a pure consumer software guy.
There was just too much of a disconnect. I could not handle questions about the market size of wearable devices and he could not answer my questions about the competitive landscape between Google and Amazon in the enterprise business.
Pure waste of time for both of us.
Google is a very successful company so obviously their process works. But I know they struggle in the enterprise space and I understand better why.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
How would you design a scalable system that can stream youtube video to Google glass provided the screen resolution is X.
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 2 months. I interviewed at Google
Interview
Have been uploading my resume for last 10 years. Never got any response. This time used referral. Was contacted after a month. Had telephonic interview. The interviewer was from the headquarters. He asked typical questions that are well documented in GlassDoor.
After 3 weeks, I was called for four rounds of F2F interview at the Bangalore office. The interview went well. The campus is amazing and I experienced the famous free lunch.
I got result after three weeks. I did not qualify.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
During technical interview, the interviewer wanted me do activities done by his engineering team, which has got nothing to do with what a product manager does. A Product manager can provide pseudo code, wireframes, etc but does not engage in core engineering activities.